In 1910, REO apparently self proclaimed itself as the “World’s Toughest Truck”. With a manly one cylinder asthmatic sounding engine and stomach churning 9 horsepower, how could it not be? Uhhh. I think when they said “tough”, they must have meant that driving it was tough. Seriously, you would need to be eating your Wheaties to tame the solid tires, chain drive, and the rear-only mechanical band brakes. Fill this animal with rocks or lumber and you’re guaranteed to be the first one at the scene of the accident.

Luckily for us, this extraordinary example somehow managed to survive over 100 years, and was on display at the Codman Estate Car Show this morning. It was absolutely beautiful from every angle, and really looked like a museum piece. The engine spun smoother than a well oiled sewing machine, and made me realize just how terrible my engines run. Well done REO, well done.

“Keeping with this weeks theme and my excitement for racing, here’s a cool video that I dug up on YouTube of Clint Bowyer’s win at NHMS last year,when Tony Stewart ran out of gas.

This was also the controversial race where Clint Bowyer was docked 150 points, and 150,000 dollars for a quarter panel that was 60-thousandths of an inch out of what Nascar deems as acceptable. Less than the thickness of a quarter!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wivfPiQI5u4

Jeremy’s Friday Video Pick:

“I bet that you have never seen multiple Cadillac CTS-V’s on two wheels before.”

We left off Part 1 of the 1964 Chevy Impala project with a freshly cut off quarter panel, and a fear of what I had just done. There was no turning back though, the sheet metal was off, and crying was no longer allowed. What I found hiding behind the quarter could have been described as something in between discouraging and disappointment. It was ugly at best.

As much as I would have loved to slap the new quarter panel on and forget that I had seen any of that, it would have haunted me for the rest of my life. I had no choice but to make like Dave Coulier and cut-it-out with my cut off wheel. The gas tank filler pipe surround piece was in rough shape as well, which is what I believe to be the major contributor of the rot to this entire area. (more…)

If you’re heading up to NHMS tonight after work, the race festivities kick off at 5:00 today with the New England 125 K&N Pro Series East. Max Gresham won the pole for the event, he will be piloting the 18 from the first place starting spot Friday afternoon.

Be sure to check out the F.W. Webb 100 modified race on Saturday. This is always one of the best races of the weekend. Sprint Cup driver Ryan Newman won the pole for Saturdays race. He’s always a force to be reckoned with in the modified series, as he has won the event in 2010 and this is his third straight pole at “The Magic Mile” for this series.

After the F.W. Webb 100 modified race, the Nationwide Series New England 200 will be set to kick off at 3:30 pm. This is a great chance to watch some of your favorite Sprint Cup drivers compete against some of Nascar’s up and coming young stars as they try their hand at defeating seasoned Sprint Cup drivers such as Carl Edwards, and Kyle Busch to name a few.

On Sunday, Nascar’s main event the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 is set to take stage at 1:00 pm. However show up early because there are always some cool souvenir trailers to poke through and usually there’s an opening band that gets the crowd rocking before the race.

The weather for Sunday’s race is said to be near 90 degrees.

Thank you to “Cindy” for sending in this cool picture of a Coors Light stock car she saw sitting outside of Sam’s Club.

By this point you have probably read or seen on TV that the Los Angeles 405 Freeway is shut down for 3 days. This horrifying event has now been appropriately nicknamed “Carmageddon”. Why? Because all of that 405 bound traffic will now end up super saturating the surrounding areas, causing people to become highly irrational. If LA traffic is anything like Boston traffic, we can surely count on enough foul language and rude hand gestures to last us 37 lifetimes. The kind of filth that will be screamed out the side windows of these marooned vehicles will be atrociously offensive in ways that we don’t even understand yet. Best case scenario is that Merriam-Webster gains a few new verbs from it.

Now that we understand that no word with “ageddon” on the end is ever a good thing, how does one make the best of this bad situation? Well, the only way is to make sure that you are the person driving the most Carmageddon appropriate vehicle. What kind of vehicle is it? What options are must have’s for keeping your sanity during hours of traffic? A/C ? Super Swampers? Shark rockets? You tell me!

It’s Thursday ! What’s so great about Thursday? Well… if you’re a race fan it’s official “Move In” day at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

The excitement begins tonight at 5:00 with the race hauler parade. What’s the race hauler parade do you ask? That’s when all of the cool 18 wheelers line up and parade around the track so that the fans can get a good look at these things. If you have ever seen one of these truck blow by you on the interstate,they’re pretty awesome to look at. They are always super clean and painted up like your favorite drivers stock car.

Joey Logano will also be available tonight to sign autographs for the fans at the track. Logano’s first win was at NHMS in 2009 making him the youngest driver to have won a Sprint Cup Race.

Here’s a video link to the Sprint Cup Hauler parade on the NHMS website.